Matterhorn

Where is Matterhorn?

Matterhorn is part of the Pennine Alps.

You will find it in: Switzerland, Italy.

Summit: 45.976° N, 7.659° E

The story behind it

The Matterhorn is a textbook 'horn', a peak carved into a near-perfect pyramid by four separate glaciers grinding away at its sides over hundreds of thousands of years, leaving four sharp ridges pointing at four faces. The nearby village of Zermatt grew from a small farming settlement into one of the world's most famous mountain resorts once climbers started flocking to attempt the peak. Its first ascent, in 1865, ended in tragedy: four of the seven climbers fell to their deaths on the way down, an accident so shocking it was reported across Europe and briefly made governments consider banning mountaineering altogether. Today the Matterhorn is climbed by hundreds of people each summer using fixed ropes on its Hörnli Ridge, but its steep, loose rock still makes it one of the deadliest popular peaks in the Alps.

Find it on the globe

Matterhorn is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.